Elder Dunn Called to Serve : Lunch with the Wada's, Splits!, and moving the district to new apartments!

Hello people of the mainland!

This week has been great! So busy I can't believe it is already over!

Saturday

Awaking to one of the Assistants shaking me and yelling,"I got in! I made it!" To a previously at slumbering youth this alarmed me. Got into what? Cookies? My peanut butter reserve? Upon further review I found that no, my food was safe, he got into BYU! It was a great surprise! After our studies we went to the only other place to be filled horrendous amounts Indian curry and nan. It was good going in...after that we went to the grocery store and bought our groceries. Then back to the old apart-o to email and rest. We were going to build a giant pillow fort, but something about having to put everything back later kind of deterred. So a nap sounded much more fitting. After our nedu jikan, we scampered to get dressed then went over to the church to get things ready for the Meet the Mormons night we were having over at the church. So we learned that a 100 ft HDMI chord can only transmit information one way so after we found that out things went a lot smoother. Since we didn't have an investigator we went ahead and dendoed. On our way to the park we walk past the train station. There I saw an American woman (the rule is we aren't supposed to approach woman), however I had the feeling to approach here. So we did, and it turned out to be a great contact! She is a devote Jew! It was neat to talk about our beliefs! I enjoyed the conversation a lot. Then we went to the park and tried talking to people to find a security guard there who was guarding a display of balloons. Since we found it pretty funny we took a picture of Elder Leach next to a light pole.

Sunday

At church I was motivated, there is an old woman in our ward who isn't a member but has to come every week because she doesn't have anyone to take care of her. So I had the idea, why don't I go sit next to her. I offered my hand out to shake it and she took it! She doesn't shake anyone's hand! Then we were able to have a great conversation. I asked her if she is healthy (basically how are you?) she told me, "i am healthy, but I wish I were sick, then I wouldn't have to be here." It was pretty funny. She was a great, I hope she stays up with herself! After that we came back for lunch and had weekly planning. We got finished then went out to dendo! A man stopped us at the street and asked us if we were missionaries! Of course we were! We talked and it turns out he went to Harvard and studied bioinformatics! Talk about a good contact. When we went to the park this time the security guard was guarding two paddle boats! It was even funnier than the balloons so of course we took another picture!

Monday

After our normal studies, we went out to lunch with the Wada's and district. It was hilarious! President told us all kinds of really awesome stories before his mission. Sister Wada left early so he stayed and talked to us for another hour or so. He even told us how they met! Talk about a good story! When we got home sister Wada and I worked on figuring out if recipes are copyrighted or not, to post them on the portal. After, we began the work of recreating an app! It is quite the pain. We are recreating the entire statistics app which includes all kind of other small little pieces. It is fun but kind of a pain. After dinner we went out for some dendo, this time there wasn't a security guard watching anything this time but we did find a house with grass growing on the side which was pretty interesting. Then we went back to the apartment so I could grab some clothes and then Elder Richardson and I went on splits. When we got to the apartment sister Wada called, she asked for me, then had me go check their tatami room. Well it turns out that their tatami room is molded pretty badly and they have been sleeping in their kitchen floor for the past week. So she had me assess the damage. I'll tell you what it was pretty bad...thankfully we made it through the night though.

Tuesday

After a long night of rolling around on the kitchen floor and a good old studies to get me spiritually jacked for a full day of dendo! We ate lunch then went over to the Honbu afterwards to print out a talk and send a few quick emails. Then off to the elder quorum presidents house. As we were storming their on our steel stallions we got lost but thankfully now we understand how the weird block system works in Japan. Fun fact; There are no street names, just numbers! We went to his condo, just really quick about the elders quorum president. He lived in Orem for 10 years, he is completely ped in English! We talked in Japanese though, he is the owner of various businesses and has a lot of neat experiences. It was good that we visited him, then we ran to their apartment and grabbed clothes for Elder Richardson. When we got to the church we changed and we met with Yutaro who is awesome! He is a bodyguard and is studying law! He is pretty funny! We had a good heart to heart lesson though, it felt good to be a normal missionary with no worries. After that lesson our next appointment showed up! His name is Tarokuni, he lived in NYC for a while and played in big fancy restaurants playing the piano, however he played so much his tendons began falling apart and he didn't take care of them so they got really badly destroyed so he has had a lot of surgeries. We went out to Gioza with him and Elder Leach and Elder Ishikawa, it was pretty delicious! They were seriously the size of my hand! Elder Leach was flabbergasted at the size. After dinner, Tarokuni helped us place a Book of Mormon with a Nepalese man! It was way solid coming from an investigator. After that we went to the church and he played the piano for us! It was so amazing!! We talked about prayer and sung a few primary songs with him. After our awesome lesson we went out to find more people, well there were these two people kissing in the park and Elder Richardson felt like we needed to talk to them, so we walked right up and interrupted them to give them some of that reiteki na hanashi. They wearing very receptive...I wonder why. We had a good split, it felt good to be outside all day.

Wednesday

We had studies, then staff meeting! President was hilarious during it. Sister Wada left early so he took advantage of her absence and quickly went through everything and went out to get pizza with us! We also brought Tarokuni along! It was a great lunch. Then we had hordes of office work to get through. We got most of it finished. Then when we went to Eaikaiwa. One of our students bought Elder Leach and I gifts when she went to Harajuku! She also bought us a gift for our sisters! It was so kind. I'll have to send it home sometime! At Eaikaiwa we talked about health. It took the a while to understand health nut. They had a lot of differing views of how to use the word it was pretty entertaining.

Thursday

We studied then went to the office and busted out a lot of office work. Just working on that app. After we had sports night, it was a blast! We played basketball in teams Americans vs. Japanese. Since Elder Richardson is 6'6", it helped contribute to our win. Elder Ishikawa and I went on splits after so I was back at their apartment. It felt so good to practice Japanese with a native again. Well President and Sister Wada showed up. Sister Wada with a poncho ready to tackle the mold and president with a cookie in his hand. They were pretty funny. She tried scrubbing at the walls, however it wouldn't do anything so the pay determined they needed to move the next day. Thankfully they began packing somewhat. Elder Jennings and I stayed up late reminiscing about the MTC. It was a lot of fun talking to him.

Friday

After the futsu studies we went to district meeting before lunch. It seemed like there were a lot more grumpy people for some reason, maybe after lunch would have been better. Since it was Elder Leaches birthday we went out to Stamina for some yakuniku. It was delicious. Then Elder Ishikawa and I went housing, sadly there weren't a whole lot of people out. I feel so rusty! It kind of makes me worried for when I leave the Honbu but we will tackle that trial when it comes. Might as well do my best now. We worked hard and met a man who didn't understand my English since he learned English in England! It was pretty neat hearing him speak! I like Elder Ishikawa he is a great missionary, it was weird dendoing with someone younger than me for once. We worked hard though. He kind of reminded me of the bear from the muppets. After we split back at the church and began the great move. Elder Leach and I were told to bike to the sisters apartment and help them. So we stood outside for a while waiting for the car. They finally arrived and we began the switch. The Elders overtook the house! Or should I say Castle! It is the most expensive house the church owns and is second to most expensive to an apartment in shinjuku! It is dang nice. The sisters weren't pleased but it's all the Lords in the end. We moved the sisters to the Yamashitas old apartment, it is really nice, but I don't think they were too happy about it. Then Elder Leach and I bought donuts for his birthday and we went back to the apartment to eat dinner.

It was been a long long week. But man did it feel good to get out and work!

Big Hearts!

Elder Dunn

The balloons and security guard